This term at Lincoln Road, 14 of our Years 7 and 8 students are embarking on Project OmniScope. A hands-on project exploring our planet, from the ground under our feet, right up to the stars.
Over the coming weeks, we’ll be looking at Earth’s natural systems: learning about rocks, soil, oceans, and trees, thinking about human impact, where we’re from and what kind of planet we’d like to leave behind for future generations, and then shifting our focus to the vast cosmos.
Students Prep Their Exhibition Boxes
Instead of just reading out of textbooks, our students are getting stuck into the role of museum curators. In Week 1, students got stuck in immediately, by painting their own exhibition boxes in class.
We do need to express a huge thank you to Resene Paints and their PaintWise programme for sponsoring us and donating a whole mix of colours to suit the students’ designs. With their boxes painted, the students are now ready to start assembling their displays, combining real-world specimens with creative journals of their observations and ideas.
Weekly Visits: Out Into Nature Then Back Into Class
To keep things moving, our weeks will follow a simple two-part flow:
- Field Discovery (Selected Mondays): We’ll be heading outdoors to explore different local spots, like Te Henga, Te Piringa and Henderson Park, to gather specimens, and see these natural layers firsthand.
- Looking after our environment: Respecting nature is a big part of this project. Students will only collect items that have already fallen or died, like dry leaves, seed pods, bark, drift rocks, or shell pieces, so we leave living plants and wildlife alone.
- Display & Journaling Days (Tuesdays): Back at school on Tuesdays, students will arrange their found items in their exhibit boxes and work on their creative journals.
Next Stop: Waitipu Quarry
Our first outing is to Waitipu Quarry to check out the geology and foundational layers of the Earth (and learn about a certain volcanic giant that shaped our ranges!).
End-of-Term Creative Arts Expo
At the end of term, we’ll wrap everything up with a Creative Arts Expo. Families and the wider school community will be invited along to check out the finished exhibition boxes and journals, and celebrate all the hard work the students have put in.
It will certainly be an adventure filled with discoveries!
